The screen printing of items, such as shirts and other articles of clothing, for resale and distribution is often accomplished with a merry-go-round type apparatus. This apparatus includes arms from which pallets or holders extend. The arms are mounted to a hub or other member which is manually or automatically rotatable to rotate the arms and their pallets. In this way, each pallet may be serially presented to one or more screen printing stations and to subsequent drying stations or stations where other treatment is effected.
The pallets of the foregoing screen-printing apparatus are usually rectangular or square in shape and have a flat, planar surface. An item to be screen printed is typically temporarily attached to the pallet until the screen printing process is completed.
In the past, temporary attachment of an article to the pallet was achieved by first coating the pallets with a layer of a layer of a soft or tacky wax to which items to be screen printed would adhere. However, once the wax loses its tackiness, usually due to its retaining ink and/or fibers from the articles, it must removed by cleaning the pallet and then applying a fresh coat of wax. Another technique for temporarily attaching items to the pallets was to spray an aerosol adhesive on the pallets. Again, once the adhesive loses its tackiness due to ink and fiber residues, it must be removed. Removal usually involves the use of solvents on the pallets, which can adversely affect their surfaces.
An improvement in the above screen printing was a paper with a non-transferable adhesive on one side which is placed adhesive-side down on the pallets. The non-adhesive side is then sprayed with an aerosol-borne adhesive onto which, after curing, the item to be printed would be placed. This technique simplified cleaning the pallets, since one need only remove the paper.
Aerosol-borne adhesives used both in combination with paper and directly sprayed onto the pallets, once sprayed may travel beyond the pallet and adhere to some of the sensitive moving parts and mechanisms of the screen printing apparatus, thus causing possible damage and undue wear on the apparatus. Additionally, aerosol-borne adhesives contain fluorocarbons which have been found to cause considerable damage to the environment.